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Science Daily has an interesting article on spiders trapped in amber. This is a subject I have blogged about previously here. According to the article 671 species of spiders, dating to approximately 30 million years ago, from the Baltic and the Carribean were compared. Here is a picture of one:

Here is a picture of one:
The results of the comparison were quite interesting:

By analysing the size distributions of the spiders and comparing the distinct hunting traits of each species, Dr Penney [lead author of the study – afarensis] found that web-spinning spiders were bigger in Baltic amber than in Dominican amber, but that there was no difference between hunting spiders in either region. It was also found the fauna of the amber producing trees in each region accounted for this difference in size.

Apparently the Baltic trees were bushier and provided a better environment for web spinning spiders. I, personally, like these kinds of studies because they show how we can learn about the past, even though we were not there to witness the events. I also think that if these kinds of studies, and the methodology behind them, (I’ll be pulling another example of a study of this type tomorrow morning) had more press, sciences dealing with the past might have an easier time of it.
If you would like to see more of Dr. Penneys’ spiders you can go here.
The abstract to the article can be found here

Nice; thanks for checking that out. I think this picture of the assassin spider shows its shape better than the other one that was published recently.

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"You may not be willing to admit that you resemble an ape; if your thousandth ancestor is more like an ape than you are, you may, if you wish, call it a coincidence. But if that thousandth ancestor's forebears become progressively more simian as you trace back the geneological lines, you will have to admit that somewhere in your family tree there squats an ape." Earnest Hooten

Charles Darwin

"But I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow at sign, etc., etc., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian." Charles Darwin: The Autobiography